James Clavell Quotes
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What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?
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It is a very pretty flag. … I wish I could have a piece of it. I know! If it's so important, I think we should all have a piece of it. Don't you? … Now we should decide - who should be allowed to cut the first piece off!
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Changi for me - of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event - was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.
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The more I know, the more sure I am I know so little. The eternal paradox.
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I'm going to pray to our leader every time!
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Your daddy had to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts - and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It's not right for others to believe wrong thoughts, is it?
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I put the candy on the desk. So you know, it doesn't matter who you shut your eyes and pray to - to God, or anyone, even our leader - no one will ever give you anything. Only another human being … only I, or someone like me, can give you things. Praying to God or anyone for something is a waste of time.
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Maybe we didn't pray hard enough. Perhaps we should kneel down like is done in church. Perhaps were using the wrong name. Instead of God, let's say 'Our Leader.' Let's pray to our leader for candy! Let's pray extra specially hard, and don't open your eyes until I say.
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Your old teacher never explained anything to you? I don't think that was very good. Not to explain. You can always ask me anything. That's what a real teacher should do.
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Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.
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I get so scared sometimes. The suddenness of our age! Electronics, rockets, earth satellites, supersonic flight, and now this. It's not so much who invents them. It's the fact they exist. … Everything's going so fast, I'm just not ready to take it all in. It's, it's all so quick
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God bless mommy and daddy, and please can we have some candy.
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To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever-increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline - training - is about.
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When you have an enemy it is wise to know his ways. The King knew as much about Grey as any man could know about another.
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Now the sun touched the horizon and the man reined in his horse tiredly, glad that the time for prayer had come.
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Changi became my university instead of my prison. … Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.
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I'm going to get that bloody bastard if I die in the attempt.
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The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world, and the most dangerous.
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So much wealth and so much power, Armstrong thought, yet with a little luck, we can bring you down like Humpty-Dumpty...
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All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.